Lipid Profile in Egyptian Patients with Prostate Cancer and Benign Prostate Hyperplasia

Abstract

Prostate cancer incidence is thought to be associated with western diet, which is rich with saturated fat. There is a possible relation between high cholesterol and prostate cancer androgens that play a role in prostate tissue and cancer are synthesized from cholesterol. Hypercholesterolemia may possibly alter prostate morphology by affecting the sex steriods axis and thus contributes to benign prostate hyperplasia. Moreover, cholesterol is synthesised by tumor cells but also enters cells from the circulation. Due to changes in Egyptians dietary habits and life style there is a great need to evaluate changes in serum lipids in prostate cancer patients. In this study, we measured serum cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-C and LDL-C in patients with benign prostate hyperplasia, androgen dependent prostate cancer and androgen independent prostate cancer to evaluate these changes. Results indicated that serum cholesterol showed statistically significant increase in androgen dependent group (P = 0.006) and androgen independent group (P = 0.001) as compared to hyperplasia group, while, no significant variation was found between androgen dependent and androgen independent groups (P = 0.246). Serum triglycerides showed significant increase in androgen independent group as compared to hyperplasia group (P = 0.032), while, there is no significant variation was found between androgen dependent and androgen independent group (P = 0.360) and between androgen dependent group and hyperplasia group (P = 0.211). Serum HDL-C showed statistically significant increase in androgen dependent (P = 0.011) and androgen independent group (P = 0.001) as compared to hyperplasia group, while, no significant variation was found between androgen dependent and androgen independent groups (P = 0.126). Serum LDL-C showed no statistically significant variation between androgen dependent group as compared with hyperplasia (P = 0.076) and between androgen dependent group as compared to androgen independent group (P = 0.614) while, there was a significant increase in androgen independent group as compared to hyperplasia groups (P = 0.05). It can be concluded that cholesterol and other serum lipid contents may play a significant role in developing of prostate cancer among Egyptian patients.